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EPA Admin: Proposed Cuts Would Harm Public Health

Speaking to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson stated that the House Republican leadership's proposal to cut a third of the EPA's budget would significantly harm that agency's ability to limit carbon pollution and protect public health.

"Big polluters would flout legal restrictions on dumping contaminants into the air, into rivers, and onto the ground," Jackson said. "There would be no EPA grant money to fix or replace broken water treatment systems. And the standards that EPA is set to establish for harmful air pollutants from smokestacks and tailpipes would remain missing."

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)--chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee--agreed with Jackson's analysis, stating "[t]hese cuts mean our drinking water has a far greater chance of contamination. We are facing touch economic times, but tough times call for intelligent decision-making and wisdom, not reckless cuts that will do more harm than good."

Yesterday, Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) and Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) formally introduced a bill to prohibit the EPA from regulating greenhouse gasses under the Clean Air Act.